Development of domain-specific skills is an important focus of chemistry instruction. Unsurprisingly, besides general text, chemistry textbooks often include worked examples that demonstrate various problem-solving strategies to help students develop problem-solving skills.<br/>In this study we analyzed 33 worked examples across three commonly used organic chemistry textbooks. We deductively coded the worked examples through the lens of Kozma and Russell’s representational competence skills framework. Results show that the worked examples support students in the development of only some of the representational competence skills (e.g., ability to interpret and generate representations) and lack focus on higher-level meta-representational skills (e.g., ability to understand affordances and limitations of representations). Even though we analyzed worked examples covering similar content and skills, we observed big differences in the number of worked examples across the three textbooks and how they scaffold explanations and solutions. Plausible implications for evidence-based design of multi-representational systems to support student representational competence and problem-solving will be presented.

Analysis of the worked examples in organic chemistry textbooks

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.